A particular application for which this invention is well suited is that of monitoring expenses by persons who are not accounting professionals.
Many individuals and households have the need and desire to achieve some measure of control over their fiscal affairs. It can be quite difficult to achieve financial goals without having a measure of expenditures.
The task of manually keeping track of expenses is a daunting one for many people, since it requires organizational as well as mathematical skills. This has led, with the advent of the personal computer, toward computer programs for home accounting.
There are a myriad of computerized systems now available for keeping accounts and books. Some are adapted for use on personal computers for maintaining checking account balances, and include expense categories to which particular expenses, when so designated, will be assigned. Problems associated with these computerized systems include the need to learn how to use the system as well as the computer on which the system is to run, and the fact that the user must have access to the computer to update the records. Another problem with such computerized systems is the absence of a pictorial presentation showing how much money has been spent or is remaining in relation to a particular length of time that has expired or is still remaining, i.e. how much money and how much month is left. For many people, the time and effort needed to learn a new system outweighs the perceived benefit of tracking personal expenses and accounts, and it is difficult to maintain such a system over an extended time period.
There is therefor a need for a simplified technique for tracking expenses, which is not computationally intensive, presents real time information that is easy to understand and analyze, and which does not require expertise in accounting principles.